Guillaume de Machaut

his other canonic posts at the request of Pope Benedict

XII. In 1346, King John was killed ghting at the Battle
of Crcy, and Machaut, who was famous and much in demand, entered the service of various other aristocrats and
rulers, including King Johns daughter Bonne (who died
of the Black Death in 1349), her sons Jean de Berry and
Charles (later Charles V, Duke of Normandy), and others
such as Charles II of Navarre.[1]
Machaut survived the Black Death that devastated Europe, and spent his later years living in Reims composing and supervising the creation of his complete-works
manuscripts. His poem Le voir dit (probably 13611365)
purports to recount a late love aair with a 19-year-old
girl, Pronne d'Armentires, although the accuracy of the
work as autobiography is contested.[2] When he died in
1377, other composers such as Franois Andrieu wrote
elegies lamenting his death.

Machaut (at right) receiving Nature and three of her children.

From an illuminated Parisian manuscript of the 1350s

Guillaume de Machaut (French: [gi'jom d ma'o];

sometimes spelled Machault; c. 1300 April 1377)
was a medieval French poet and composer. He is one
of the earliest composers on whom signicant biographical information is available. According to Daniel LeechWilkinson, Machaut was the last great poet who was also
a composer. Well into the 15th century, Machauts poetry was greatly admired and imitated by other poets, including Georey Chaucer.

2 Poetry
Guillaume de Machauts lyric output comprises around
400 poems, including 235 ballades, 76 rondeaux, 39 virelais, 24 lais, 10 complaintes, and 7 chansons royales,
and Machaut did much to perfect and codify these xed
forms. Some of his lyric output is embedded in his narrative poems or dits, such as Le remde de fortune (The
Cure of Ill Fortune) which includes one of each genre of
lyric poetry, and Le voir dit (A True Story), but most
are included in a separate, unordered section entitled Les
loanges des dames. That the majority of his lyrics are
not set to music (in manuscripts, music and non-music
sections are separate) suggests that he normally wrote the
text before setting some to music.

Machaut composed in a wide range of styles and forms.

He is a part of the musical movement known as the
ars nova. Machaut helped develop the motet and secular song forms (particularly the lai and the formes xes:
rondeau, virelai and ballade). Machaut wrote the Messe
de Nostre Dame, the earliest known complete setting of
the Ordinary of the Mass attributable to a single composer.

Other than his Latin motets of a religious nature and some

poems invoking the horrors of war and captivity, the vast
majority of Machauts lyric poems reect the conventions
of courtly love, and involve statements of service to a
lady and the poets pleasure and pains. In technical terms,
Machaut was a master of elaborate rhyme schemes, and
this concern makes him a precursor to the Grands Rhtoriqueurs of the 15th century.

Life

Guillaume de Machaut was born about 1300, and educated in the region around Reims. His surname most
likely derives from the nearby town of Machault, 30 km
northeast of Reims in the Ardennes region. He was employed as secretary to John I, Count of Luxembourg and
King of Bohemia from 1323 to 1346, and also became a
canon (1337). He often accompanied King John on his
various trips, many of them military expeditions around
Europe (including Prague). He was named the canon of
Verdun in 1330, Arras in 1332, and Reims in 1337. By
1340, Machaut was living in Reims, having relinquished

Guillaume de Machauts narrative output is dominated

by the dit (literally spoken, i.e. a poem not meant
to be sung). These rst-person narrative poems (all but
one are written in octosyllabic rhymed couplets, like the
romance, or roman of the same period) follow many of
the conventions of the Roman de la rose, including the
1

2 POETRY

use of allegorical dreams (songes), allegorical characters,

and the situation of the narrator-lover attempting to return toward or satisfy his lady.

to a beautiful lady; an old knight comes to the narrator and reveals the meaning of what he sees and
gives him advice for being a better lover.

Machaut is also the author of a poetic chronicle of

the chivalric deeds of Peter I of Cyprus, (the Prise
d'Alexandrie), and of poetic works of consolation and
moral philosophy. His unusual self-reective usage of
himself (as his lyrical persona) as the narrator of his dits
gleans some personal philosophical insights as well.

Dit de l'Alrion aka Dit des quatre oiseaux (Story

of the 4 Birds) (before 1349) A symbolic tale of
love: the narrator raises four dierent birds, but each
one ees him; one day the second (and preferred)
bird comes back to him.

At the end of his life, Machaut wrote a poetic treatise on

his craft (his Prologue). This reects on his conception
of the organization of poetry into set genres and rhyme
schemes, and the ordering of these genres into distinct
sections of manuscripts. This preoccupation with ordering his oeuvre is reected in an index to MS A entitled
Vesci l'ordonance que G. de Machaut veut qu'il ait en
son livre (Here is the order that G. de Machaut wants
his book to have).[3]
Machauts poetry had a direct eect on the works of
Eustache Deschamps, Jean Froissart, Christine de Pizan,
Ren d'Anjou and Georey Chaucer, among many others.

2.1

Example

The poem below, Puis qu'en oubli, is his 18th rondeau.

Puis qu'en oubli sui de vous, dous amis,
Vie amoureuse et joie a Dieu commant.
Mar vi le jour que m'amour en vous mis,
Puis qu'en oubli sui de vous, dous amis.
Mais ce tenray que je vous ay promis,
C'est que ja mais n'aray nul autre amant.
Puis qu'en oubli sui de vous, dous amis,
Vie amoureuse et joie a Dieu commant.

2.2

Principal works

Le remde de fortune (The Cure of Ill Fortune)

(c. 1340s, before 1357) The narrator is asked by
his lady if the poem she has found is by him; the
narrator ees from her and comes to a garden where
Hope consoles him and teaches him how to be a
good lover; he returns to his lady.
Jugement du roy de Behainge (Judgement of the
King of Bohemia) (before 1346) The narrator
hears a debate between a lady (whose lover is dead)
and a knight (betrayed by his lady); in order to proclaim one or the other the most unhappy, the narrator seeks out the advice of the King of Bohemia
who consults allegories, and the unhappy knight is
declared the winner.
Dit du Lyon (Story of the Lion) (1342) The narrator comes to a magical island and a lion guides him

Jugement du roy de Navarre (Judgement of the

King of Navarre) (1349) Following up on the
Jugement du roy de Behainge, a lady blames the narrator for awarding the prize to the knight: the King
of Navarre is consulted and condemns the poet.
Confort d'ami (1357) Dedicated to Charles II of
Navarre (who was a prisoner in France), this poetic consolation gives biblical and classical examples
(exempla) of fortitude.
Dit de la fontaine amoureuse aka Livre de Morpheus
(Story of the Amorous Fountain) (1361) The
narrator meets a hopeless lover who must separate
from his lady; the two men come to a magical fountain and fall asleep, and in a dream the lady consoles
her lover.
Le voir dit (A True Story) (c. 136265) Often
seen as Machauts masterpiece, this poem is an early
example of meta-ction, and tells of the sadness and
separation of the narrator from his lady, and of the
false rumors that are spread about him. The narrative is stued with prose letters and lyric poems
that the narrator claims were in truth exchanged by
the unhappy lovers and put in the book at the behest
of his lady. The work is, however, highly satirical,
and mocks the conventional paradigm of medieval
courtly literature by presenting himself as an old, ill,
impotent poet who becomes the lover of a young and
beautiful maiden, who falls in love with him from his
reputation as a poet alone. Though the work is called
a voir dit or true story, Machaut includes many inconsistencies which force the reader to question the
truthfulness of his story.
Prologue (c. 1372) written at the end of his life
as a preface to his collected works, this allegory describes Machauts principles of poetry, music and
rhetoric, as imparted to him by Nature and Love.
Prise d'Alexandrie (The Capture of Alexandria)
(after 1369) poetic retelling of the exploits of
Peter of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem and of Cyprus.

Music

As a composer of the 14th century, Machauts secular

song output includes monophonic lais and virelais, which
continue, in updated forms, some of the tradition of the
troubadours. He also worked in the polyphonic forms
of the ballade and rondeau and wrote the rst complete
setting of the Ordinary of the Mass which can be attributed to a single composer.

3.1

Secular music

The lyrics of Machauts works almost always dealt with

courtly love. A few works exist to commemorate a particular event, such as M18, Bone Pastor/Bone Pastor/Bone
Pastor. Machaut mostly composed in ve genres: the lai,
the virelai, the motet, the ballade, and the rondeau. In
these genres, Machaut retained the basic formes xes, but
often utilized creative text setting and cadences. For example, most rondeau phrases end with a long melisma on
the penultimate syllable. However, a few of Machauts
rondeaux, such as R18 Puis qu'en oubli, are mostly syllabic in treatment.
Machauts motets often contain sacred texts in the tenor,
such as in M12 Corde mesto cantando/Helas! pour quoy
virent/Libera me. The top two voices in these threepart compositions, in contrast, sing secular French texts,
creating interesting concordances between the sacred and
secular. In his other genres, though, he does not utilize
sacred texts.

3.2

Sacred music

Machauts cyclic setting of the Mass, identied in one

source as the Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our
Lady), was composed in the early 1360s probably for
Rheims Cathedral. While not the rst cyclic mass the
Tournai Mass is earlier it was the rst by a single composer and conceived as a unit. Machaut probably was
familiar with the Tournai Mass since Machauts Mass
shares many stylistic features with it, including textless
interludes.
Whether or not Machauts mass is indeed cyclic is contested; after lengthy debate, musicologists are still deeply
divided. However, there is a consensus that this mass is at
best a forerunner to the later 15th-century cyclic masses
by the likes of Josquin des Prez. Machauts mass diers
from these in the following ways: (1) he does not hold
a tonal centre throughout the entire work, as the mass
uses two distinct modes (one for the Kyrie, Gloria, and
Credo, another for Sanctus, Agnus and Ite missa est);
(2) there is no extended melodic theme that clearly runs
through all the movements, and the mass does not use the
parody technique; (3) there is considerable evidence that
this mass was not composed in one creative motion. That

the movements may have been placed together does not

mean they were conceived so.[4]
Nevertheless, the mass can be said to be stylistically consistent, and certainly the chosen chants are all celebrations of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Also adding weight to
the claim that the mass is cyclic is the possibility that the
piece was written or assembled for performance at a specic celebration. The possibility that it was for the coronation of Charles V, which was once widely accepted, is
thought unlikely in modern scholarship. The composers
intention that the piece be performed as one entire mass
setting makes the Messe de Nostre Dame generally considered a cyclic composition.

4 Recordings
1936 Guillaume de Machaut. Messe de NotreDame, dite du sacre de Charles V. Les Paraphonistes
de St-Jean des Matines (choir and brass); Guillaume
De Van, dir. Standard-groove recording, 2 discs: 78
rpm, 12 in., monaural. Anthologie sonore 31: AS
74; AS 75; AS 76; AS 77; [Paris]: L'Anthologie
Sonore.
1938 Guillaume de Machaut. Hoquetus David.
Jean Archimbaud (soprano); Andr Lafosse (bass
trumpet); Tudesq (trombone); Guillaume de Van,
dir. Standard-groove recording, 1 disc: 78 rpm;
12 in., monaural. ditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre OL 3;
1059; M6-91643; 1063. M6-91647. [Paris]: ditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre.
1938 Guillaume de Machaut. Quant Theseus (double ballade); Je puis trop bien (ballade); De tout sui
si conforte (virelai). Henriette Guermant, soprano;
La Socit Pro Musica Antiqua de Bruxelles; Safford Cape, director. Standard-groove recording, 1
disc: 78 rpm, 12 in., monaural. (Anthologie sonore
67 (AS-140, AS-135). [France] : L'Anthologie
sonore, 1938.
1943 Guillaume de Machaut. Si je soupire; Douce
dame jolie; He! Dame de vaillance. Pierre Deniau,
tenor; instrumental accompaniment. Standardgroove recording, 1 disc, 78 rpm, 10 in., monaural.
Lumen XC 462; XC 463; 33405; France: Lumen.
Guillaume de Machaut. Rose lys; Anon (Montpellier
no. 189, 13th century). A la clart. Anon (Montpellier no. 184, 13th century). Hui main. Anon (14th
century). Amour que vous ai-je fait. Anon (15th
century). Trop penser. Simone Gebelin, voice; H.
Akoka, clarinet; G. Bon, ute; P. Hongne, bassoon.
Standard-groove recording, 1 disc: 78 rpm; 312 in.,
monaural. BAM 44. [N.p.]: Bote Musique, 1948.
1956 Guillaume de Machaut. Messe de Notre
Dame: dite du Sacre de Charles V.
Jean

7
Archimbaud, soprano; Pierre Deniau, haute-contre,
Georges Cathelat, tenor; Eugne Bousquet, baritone; Marcel Vigneron, bass; l'Ensemble Vocal er
Instrumental, Roger Blanchard, dir. LP recording,
1 disc: 33 rpm. 10 in., monaural. Ducretet Thomson 270C085. [Paris]: Ducretet Thomson.
1973 Machaut Chansons, v.1 and v.2. Studio
der Frhen Musik. EMI (v.1 contains monophonic
works, v.2 contains polyphonic works)
1983 Machaut: The Mirror of Narcissus. Gothic
Voices. Hyperion CDA66087.
1989 Machaut: Messe de Notre Dame.
Hilliard Ensemble

The

1994 Remede de Fortune. Ensemble Project Ars

Nova. New Albion Records.
1997 Dreams in the Pleasure Garden: Machaut
Chansons. Orlando Consort. Deutsche Grammophon DG Archiv 477 6731.
1997 Kyrie I, II, and III, on Kronos Quartet, Early
Music (Lachrymae Antiquae).
2002 Les motets, Ensemble Musica Nova, Lucien Kandel, Zig-Zag Territoires 021002.2 (2 CDs)
2003 Unrequited: Music of Guillaume de Machaut.
Liber unUsualis.
2004 Machaut: Motets. The Hilliard Ensemble
2004 Ma n est mon commencement, by Louis
Thiry (organ). Hortus records.
2009 Ballades, Ensemble Musica Nova, Lucien
Kandel, AEON AECD 0982.
2010 Art of Love: Music of Machaut, Robert
Sadin, Edge Records, with Mark Feldman, Hassan
Hakmoun, John Ellis, Lionel Loueke, Brad
Mehldau, Milton Nascimento.
2010 Messe Notre-Dame, (with Philippe de
Vitry, Robertsbridge Codex, Pierre de Bruges,
Gilles d'Orlans, Bernard de Cluny), Ensemble Musica Nova, Lucien Kandel, AEON AECD 1093.
2011 Sacred And Secular Music: Messe De Nostre Dame [Dominique Vellard: Ensemble Gilles
Binchois], Brilliant Classics 94217 [Licensed from
Cantus Records].
2013 Machaud: Mon chant vous envoy. Various
Artists. Eloquentia Records EL1342.

See also
List of compositions by Guillaume de Machaut

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

6 Notes
[1] Wimsatt & Kibler 1988. p 3-4
[2] Daniel Leech-Wilkinson (1993). Le Voir Dit and La
Messe de Nostre Dame: aspects of genre and style in late
works of Machaut. Plainsong and Medieval Music: 43
73. doi:10.1017/S0961137100000413.
[3] Earp 1989. p 461
[4] Keitel 1982, .

7 References and further reading

Arlt, Wulf. Guillaume de Machaut in The New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed.
Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd.,
1980). ISBN 1-56159-174-2
Earp, Lawrence. Guillaume de Machaut: A Guide to
Research (New York: Garland Publishing, 1995).
Earp, Lawrence (1989). Machauts Role in the Production of Manuscripts of His Works. Journal of
the American Musicological Society 42: 461503.
doi:10.1525/jams.1989.42.3.03a00020.
Earp, Lawrence, Domenic Leo, and Carla Shapreau.
The Ferrell-Vog Machaut Manuscript. Full Colour
Facsimile with Introductory Study, 2 vols (Oxford: DIAMM Publications, 2015). ISBN 978-1907647-05-5.
Gleason and Becker. Music in the Middle Ages
and Renaissance (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, ).
Author: Guillaume de Machaut (c1300-1377)".
The Lied and Art Song Texts Page. Retrieved 200802-08.
Hasenohr and Zinc (eds.). Dictionnaire des lettres franaises: Le Moyen Age in Collection: La
Pochothque (Paris: Fayard, 1992).
Hoppin, Richard H. Medieval Music (New York:
W.W. Norton & Co., 1978). ISBN 0-393-090906
Keitel, Elizabeth. The So-called Cyclic Mass of
Guillame De Machaut: New Evidence for an Old
Debate, The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 68, no. 3
(1982). pp. 307323.
Leach, Elizabeth Eva (ed.). Machauts Music: New
Interpretations (Boydell Press, 2003). ISBN 184383-016-7; ISBN 978-1-84383-016-0
Leach, Elizabeth Eva. Guillaume de Machaut: Secretary, Poet, Musician (Cornell University Press,
2011). ISBN 978-0-8014-4933-8

5
Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel (ed.). La Messe de Nostre
Dame (Oxford and New York: Oxford University
Press, 1990).
Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel. Machauts Mass: An Introduction (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
Ludwig, Friedrich (ed.), Guillaume de Machaut:
musikalische Werke.
Erster Band:
Balladen, Rondeux und Virelais, Publikationen lterer Musik, 1 (Leipzig:
Breitkopf
&
Hrtel),
http://www.free-scores.com/
download-sheet-music.php?pdf=35322
Wimsatt and Kibler (eds.). Machaut: Le Jugement
du roy de Behaingne and Remde de Fortune (University of Georgia Press, 1988).
The Works of Guillaume de Machaut. La Trobe
University Library. 2003-06-02. Retrieved 200802-08.

External links
Works by or about Guillaume de Machaut at Internet
Archive
Guillaume de Machaut FAQ and discography
Free scores by Guillaume de Machaut in the Choral
Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
Free access to high-resolution images of
manuscripts containing works by Machaut from
Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
Free scores by Guillame de Machaut at the
International Music Score Library Project
Listen to free recordings of songs from (Ume
Akademiska Kr).
Full-colour images of the Ferrell-Vog MS, a major collection of the poetry and music of Machaut
are available for free for anyone to view at The Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music.
Messe de Nostre Dame Public Domain Recording
Bibliography of his works on Archives de littrature
du Moyen ge

9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1

Text

Guillaume de Machaut Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_de_Machaut?oldid=661180864 Contributors: Andre Engels,

William Avery, Camembert, Ihcoyc, Andres, RodC, Adam Bishop, Hyacinth, Bearcat, Robbot, Utcursch, Antandrus, Phe, D6, Mindspillage, El C, Svenax, Troels Nybo~enwiki, Alansohn, Sterio, Woohookitty, Webdinger, SDC, Graham87, Rjwilmsi, Roivas, TBHecht,
FlaBot, RobertG, RexNL, Gurch, Gareth E Kegg, Chobot, Gdrbot, Loenstock, YurikBot, RobotE, Sceptre, LiniShu, Alarichall, Woling,
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9.2

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9.3

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